South Africa

Context

Rates of child sexual abuse (CSA) are high in South Africa—in 2016, approximately 35.4 percent of adolescents reported having been a victim of sexual abuse. From 2017, the number of sexual offenses against children reported to law enforcement increased by 4.7 percent to 22,713 in 2019. While data on the economic burden of physical and CSA is severely limited, one study found that the cost of the South African government’s failure to combat widespread child abuse amounted to almost 5.0 percent of the country’s GDP in 2015. 

While South Africa’s constitution broadly establishes the rights of children, the Children’s Act of 2005 is the principal piece of domestic legislation that addresses child abuse and neglect. The law includes CSA specifically, defining it as: “(a) sexually molesting or assaulting a child or allowing a child to be sexually molested or assaulted; (b) encouraging, inducing, or forcing a child to be used for the sexual gratification of another person; (c) using a child in or deliberately exposing a child to sexual activities or pornography; or d) procuring or allowing a child to be procured for commercial sexual exploitation or in any way participating or assisting in the commercial sexual exploitation of a child.” Among other additional legal protections, the comprehensive Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses and Related Matters) Amendment Act was introduced in 2007 to codify laws related to all sex offenses, including against minors, irrespective of the gender of victims or perpetrators, and the Film and Publications Act of 1996 contains provisions against child pornography.

Legislation is complemented by the five-year National Plan of Action for Children (2019–2024), which focuses on inter-sectoral coordination, implementation, monitoring, and reporting on the national level to improve child protection; it includes CSA provisions under its recommendations for addressing violence, child abuse, torture, and sexual exploitation. Specifically, the plan includes targets for further research, policies to change attitudes, implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies, improved services for victims of sexual abuse, and training for service providers. The strategy primarily nominates the Department of Social Development, especially to legislate and create policies to prevent and protect children from abuse, and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. Other relevant government entities include the South African Police Service, which investigates cases of CSA, particularly through its Child Protection and Sexual Offenses Unit; the National Prosecution Authority, which works to prosecute offenders; and the Departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs; Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities; Basic Education; Health; and Home Affairs.

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Budget

The Children’s Act (amended in 2007 and 2016) mandates services in relation to the care of children and protection against physical and sexual abuse and exploitation. As a variety of donors make funding contributions due to insufficient government allocations, the implementation of the Children’s Act is not funded exclusively by the government. However, the Department of Social Development plays a leading role in service delivery, predominantly through the nine subnational-level (provincial) departments. Funding at the national level is concentrated on the development and coordination of policies, legislative frameworks, and standards and norms, as well as the facilitation of service delivery to address child abuse. (See Figure 1.) At the provincial level, services and their associated funding are divided into the following sub-programs: (1) “Child protection services,” (2) “Prevention and early intervention services,” (3) “Child and youth care centers,” (4) “Partial care and early childhood development programs,” (5) “Drop-in centers,” and (6) “Foster care and adoption services.” 

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National Budgetary Allocations by Subprogram

(ZAR)

Data Source: South Africa National Treasury.

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While funding to address CSA specifically is not visible through the South African budget program, CSA is included and addressed through these services. Notably, the implementation and funding of “Child protection services,” “Prevention and early intervention services,” and “Child and youth care centers” is mandatory for all provinces under the Children Act’s provisioning clauses. These three services cover various prevention, intervention, and care efforts. (See Figure 2.) In contrast, provincial governments are not mandated to fund “Early childhood development programs,” “Partial care,” and “Drop-in centers,” meaning that there is no explicit legal obligation to fund such services, despite their inclusion in a number of policies.

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Select Provincial Services

Data Source: South Africa National Treasury.

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Figures 3–6 show how spending differs across four example provinces, demonstrating significant disparities at the provincial level. The FY 2022–23 funding for CSA-related services in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and approximately 15.9 million people as of 2023, is 10 times larger than that for the Northern Cape province, home to 1.3 million, but residents of the Northern Cape end up receiving 22 percent more spending per capita. (See Figures 3 and 4.) While variations in funding can be attributed to proportional distribution due to population size, need, economies of scale, and better-developed social welfare services, provinces also prioritize funding differently. For instance, Western Cape—the third most populous province—has not allocated funding for “Community-based care service I,” which provides protection, care, and support to vulnerable children in communities. (See Figure 5.) In contrast, Eastern Cape—the fourth most populous province—has consistently funded this service. (See Figure 6.)

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Gauteng Budgetary Allocations by Service Type

(ZAR)

Data Source: 2022 Department of Social Development Estimates.

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Northern Cape Budgetary Allocations by Service Type

(ZAR)

Data Source: 2022 Department of Social Development Estimates.

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Western Cape Budgetary Allocations by Service Type

(ZAR)

Data Source: 2022 Department of Social Development Estimates.

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Eastern Cape Budgetary Allocations by Service Type

(ZAR)

Data Source: 2022 Department of Social Development Estimates.

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Key Findings

Targets for addressing CSA in South Africa are laid out by the National Plan of Action for Children, and tracked funding is associated with the Children’s Act. While funding at the national level is allocated mainly for oversight purposes—to develop and coordinate policies, frameworks, and standards—funding for the actual delivery of child protection, abuse prevention, and care services is concentrated predominantly at the provincial level. 

Research highlights difficulties surrounding CSA-prevention measures in South Africa. As Conrad Barberton, senior economist at Cornerstone Economic Research, noted, “The challenge is that to spend more money on prevention, one needs to have effective programs to invest in . . . and very often, that’s where the challenge lies. We in South Africa, but also in other countries, have not figured out what types of programs, that can be implemented at scale, are most effective at preventing child sexual abuse.”

“The challenge is that to spend more money on prevention, one needs to have effective programs to invest in . . . and very often, that’s where the challenge lies. We in South Africa, but also in other countries, have not figured out what types of programs, that can be implemented at scale, are most effective at preventing child sexual abuse.”

Conrad Barberton, senior economist at Cornerstone Economic Research

In South Africa, the organizational structures of national and provincial budget programs are comprehensive. Notably, the funding breakdown of child protection and care services across all of South Africa’s nine provinces over the past five years is publicly accessible. By cross-examining the budget allocations across all six service areas, the data paint a clear picture of provincial investments into child abuse prevention and post-abuse care. However, spending on CSA is not made visible through the budget program; thus it is unclear how much funding at the national and provincial levels is being allocated to combat CSA specifically.

A review of available data demonstrates large funding disparities among provinces, meaning that child protection and other services to combat child abuse (including CSA) are not equally and consistently funded throughout the country. In part, this is due to social welfare services being significantly underfunded as a result of the long-lasting and deeply ingrained impacts of apartheid as well as economic disparities across different geographic regions of the country. According to the Government Technical Advisory Center (GTAC), social welfare services are, on average, 2.3 percent of provinces’ aggregate budgets. Consequently, GTAC has urged the government to spend an additional ZAR 12 to 24 billion to mitigate provincial funding disparities in social welfare services. Overall, to trace funding levels and measure the impact of programming, it is critical that budgets are organized into categories pertaining to CSA specifically.